WO 03/078951 A1 (Bindocci et al.) discloses a position transducer for transforming information relating to the water level in the flood basin of the machine into an electric signal to activate an execution organ to turn on/off the water. The position transducer includes upstream and downstream sections separated from each other by a membrane tightly engaged in the housing of the transducer. The upstream section includes a tube led into the flood basin of the machine. A first, free, entering end of the tube resides at the bottom of the flood basin and its second end is tightly fixed to the housing of the transducer. The downstream section includes a spring-supported armature fixed to the membrane. The armature is axially freely movably inserted into a central bearing of an inductive winding stably retained in the housing of the transducer. The downstream section further includes a substantially flat circuit also stably retained in the housing of the transducer and installed in a cross-sectional area of the housing of the transducer. One side of the flat circuit provides two pins to connect the ends of the inductive winding and another side thereof provides plug points to accommodate a connector, by means of which the transducer is incorporated into the processing appliance of the machine.
Water enters the machine and leaves it according to a machine process layout, whereat the present transducer generates information relating to the water level as prescribed by the machine process layout. The respective information is created on the basis of balancing the static pressure of air inside the upstream section of the transducer and the static pressure of water in the flood basin.
If there is no water in the flood basin, atmospheric pressure prevails with the upstream section of the transducer. In all other technical situations, a positive pressure prevails. The higher the water level during the operation, the higher said positive pressure. A change of air pressure at the upstream section of the transducer results in a deformation of the membrane; the deformation of the membrane results in a shifting of the armature; the shifting of the armature results in a change of the induction of the induction winding, which results in an electric signal generated in the circuit, which electric signal is, in the form of an order of turn ON/OFF the water, transferred via a connector, a respective cabling of the machine and the machine process layout to the execution organ.
Related background information can also be found in DE 197 54 616 (Nomura et al.) and DE 41 04 477 (Lövel) as well as WO 2005/002887 (Chen et al.).
The circuit disclosed in the prior art solution is embodied to form a printed circuit board, with a relatively miniature connector (not shown in the disclosure) being annexed to plug points thereof. The securing against dismounting, which not shown in the disclosure, but is necessary because the transducer is subjected to vibrations, is provided by fixing the printed circuit board to an end wall of a transducer support body on the opposite side of a membrane. It is a disadvantage of such a design that only such connectors are applicable, whose main assembling plane coincides with or is parallel to the main plane of the printed circuit board. This, however, is not always the best solution in the practice.